Argentina has won the geological lottery with its 305 meters-thick Vaca Muerta shale oil and gas field in Patagonia, a spokesman for Chevron said on Thursday, as the U.S. energy giant increases its investments in the country. The company and state-owned oil firm YPF announced plans last month to invest an additional 1.6 billion to develop Vaca Muerta.

The economic scenario for 2014, with an estimated average growth rate of 2.7%, is far from encouraging for the evolution of the Latin American regional labor market and presents major challenges for labor market policy, said the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the International Labor Organization (ILO) in a new joint report released this week.

Spanish oil company Repsol has ended its operations in Argentina, two years after the government seized its assets. Last month the Argentine congress gave final approval to pay 5bn dollars in compensation for Repsol's stake in Argentine oil firm YPF.

The Dominican Republic’s 2013 visitor numbers grew by 3.6% over the previous year, outpacing the entire Caribbean region, which recorded growth in tourism of only 1%. Tourism minister Francisco Javier Garcia described it as “an extraordinary year.”

Accusations of bribes from drug traffickers, spying and email hacking have turned Colombia’s presidential election into an ugly slugfest that has further polarized a country trying to emerge from its violent past.

A roundtable on soccer organized by the Argentine Embassy in London in the wake of World Cup, Argentina Ambassador, Alicia Castro, highlighted the “cultural links between Argentine and British people” and said “soccer is one of the strongest”.

Chile, one of a handful of the world's countries that outlaws abortion in all cases, will debate a bill this year that seeks to relax the ban in certain circumstances, a government spokesman announced. President Michelle Bachelet who was re-elected and took office in March had pledged a change in the law ahead of her election.

The Falklands Islands reaffirmed its right to self determination supported by the UN charter and different resolutions going back to 1960, and at the same time accused Argentina of doing its utmost to damage the Islands economy.

More than 100 demonstrators seeking better pay for McDonald's workers were arrested on Thursday as protesters swarmed the fast-food chain's corporate campus near Chicago demanding a minimum wage of 15 dollars an hour and the right to unionize.